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Isis uses terror attack to sign up YouTube recruits

By Alexi Mostrous, Head of Investigations and
Fiona Hamilton, Crime & Security Editor
March 27 2017, 12:01am, The Times


Hundreds of Isis propaganda videos remain on YouTube, including some that refer to the Westminster attack

Islamic State has flooded YouTube with hundreds of violent recruitment videos since the terrorist attack in London last week in an apparent attempt to capitalise on the tragedy, The Times can reveal.

Google, the owner of YouTube, has failed to block the films, despite dozens being posted under obvious usernames such as “Islamic Caliphate” or “IS Agent”. Many are produced by the media wing of Isis and show, in high definition, beheadings and other extreme violence, including by children.

Several of the videos expressly refer to Wednesday’s attack on parliament by Khalid Masood, the Muslim convert who stabbed a police officer to death after ploughing his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.

“Five kaffir dead in London, thousands of believers dead because of US airstrikes,” one Isis-produced YouTube video is subtitled, asking: “Who are the real terrorists?” Another made by al-Anbar, the group’s media agency, is posted under the title “Westminster attack documentary (must watch)”.

The day after the attacks, a YouTube poster uploaded an Isis statement claiming Masood as a “soldier of the Islamic State”. The video, which is still live, was commented on by a user called “Supporter of the Caliphate”, who wrote: “Allahu Akbar thankfully.”

Other Isis videos available on YouTube last night included one showing a slow-motion close-up of a prisoner being shot in the head, and another featuring jihadists singing: “We shall cut off their heads, with the severe blades, we shall drink the blood, so tasty and dark red.”

The findings will ramp up pressure on Google to explain why terrorist materials are so readily available on its platforms. This weekend Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, condemned the company’s failure to clamp down on extremism as “disgusting”. Amber Rudd, the home secretary, called on social media companies to accept their responsibilities as a publisher. It emerged yesterday that Masood was on the radar of the security services six years ago when he lived in Luton.

Counterterrorism police say that he acted alone, but he lived close to extremists in about 2010. While in the town, Masood developed an interest in the teachings of the hate preacher Anjem Choudary, The Times has learnt. Hundreds of videos posted by Choudary’s associates, including some supportive of Isis, are available on YouTube.

Experts warned that the group was likely to be exploiting Masood’s crimes for recruitment. The group, which has lost swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, is increasingly reliant on social media. Many of its YouTube films include links to other jihadist sites and documents, including some posted on Google Drive, the cloud-based storage site.

“No direct link between [Masood] and Isis has been established,” Raffaello Pantucci, of the Royal United Services Institute, said. “But the group is trying to stamp its imprint on it anyway; it is jumping all over it.”

He recognised the challenges in wiping such material from the internet, but added: “You’d have hoped Google would develop an algorithm . . . If we’re able to keep paedophilic material off social media sites then why are we not able to do that for extremism?”

Google has lost billions of dollars from its share price after more than 250 brands suspended their YouTube advertising following an investigation by The Times. The company has apologised.

Google said that it had clear policies against inciting violence or hatred and that it removed such content when it was made aware of it. In 2015 it removed 92 million YouTube videos.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/isis-uses-attack-to-sign-up-youtube-recruits-nvxz6j75d